Saturday, October 31, 2015

Cherry 2000 was released by Australian indie polish maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics as part of the Post Apocalyptic Princess collection in September this year. This series of polishes is Ben and Kaz's tribute to movies and games set in a wasteland. Cherry 2000 gets its name from the 1987 eponymous sci fi cult film starring Melanie Griffith and David Andrews.

This polish is a deep red-violet shade shot through with ultrafine silver particulate shimmers, which give it a semi-metallic look. It has a rich pinkish burgundy/black cherry appearance in low light and shade, but once you get it into the light it reveals fantastic radiant deep pink overtones that really put the princess into Post Apocalyptic Princess. As Christine from Serenity Nails says, it's "like black forest cake for your nails." That black cherry vibe is so very Pretty Serious! Lovers of ultrafine shimmer polishes that look like they're lit from within, take note! You'll be wanting to hunt this one down!Application was great! The consistency of Cherry 2000 is fluid and smooth with a silky glide over the nail and outstanding self-leveling properties. A characteristic of semi-metallics and metallics is that they have a tendency to accentuate irregularities in the nail bed. Not this polish! My ridges were g-o-n-e gone with the first coat. Pigmentation is also outstanding, with even opaque coverage in one coat. As usual, I added a second coat, ostensibly to fix a few lines and ended up with the epitome of a shaky hands manicure. I mean, I flooded cuticles and sidewalls and even had blobs on my finger tips from wrapping my tips. Hey, that's what cleanup is for, right? I'm happy to tell you that despite it's profoundly pigmented formula, Cherry 2000 is actually quite user friendly when it comes to cleanup. There is definitely some pigment travel but you can remove all (or almost all, in my case) traces of it with your acetone-dampened brush and a patient careful hand. Thank goodness! Cherry 2000 dries naturally in very good time to a beautiful high-gloss finish. Photos show two coats of Cherry 2000 over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. My disastrous second coat left some brushstrokes, but these are purely user error and not characteristic of the polish.

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Threw in a couple of shortie pics there towards the end, hope you don't mind....

I think this is gorgeous. I love the slinky, silky, Mata Hari-esque quality of the shimmers in Cherry 2000 and the beautiful flash of rosy pink at the access of light. It has an awesome feel on the nail, elegant but powerful and potentially dangerous. People better mind their Ps and Qs around this polish!Each Post Apocalyptic Princess polish comes in a custom variation of Pretty Serious' usual box, graced by a special post apocalyptic version of mascot Daphne by artist Lee Young.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Today features yet another Australian polish! Ninja-lish-ious was released by Australian indie polish maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics as a birthday tribute to their North American shipping manager, Alicia, in September. All items ordered from customers in the US and Canada are picked, packed and shipped by her capable hands.

I use Pretty Serious products every day so I order from them in quantity on a regular basis and can attest to the great job that Alicia does. Only once in three years have I had a problem with an order. When I emailed Kaz about it, she responded immediately. All was made right and I received a bonus polish of my choice (Hell on Wheels) as consolation. Thank you, Alicia and Kaz, for everything you do to make sure we're happy over here on the other side of the globe!

Ninja-lish-ious is a dark blue jelly polish bearing abundant glass fleck shimmers in blue, green and teal. Its listing on the Pretty Serious website describes it as a navy, and you guys know how I feel about navy -- my skepticism was preloaded. Unnecessarily, it turns out, for this is indeed a navy. And with the translucence of the jelly formula allowing light to penetrate, it's actually a vivid navy. Gasp! The glass fleck shimmers catch and hold light too, so the look is pretty spectacular in direct light with bright shimmering sparks of bright blue, green and teal firing from the depths of the polish and scintillating up and down the nail as your hand moves. In low light, the polish is inky and mysterious but still obviously blue, with stealthy hints of sparkle from the shimmers when the light catches them just right.Application was wonderful. Ninja-lish-ious has a fantastic consistency for painting: fluid and very smooth with absolutely no stickiness and a languid, buttery (yes, a buttery jelly) glide over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent for a jelly with evenly opaque coverage and full bottle color in two medium coats. To avoid any trace of sheerness at the tips, I did an extra wrap in between coats. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with some pigment travel that's to be expected from a polish this well-pigmented but very little residual staining. Ninja-lish-ious dries naturally in very good time to a plump, glossy jelly finish. Photos show two coats of Ninja-lish-ious over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Unfortunately, by the time I got to taking pictures it had clouded over so you get the inky mysterious version in my photos.

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Ninja-lish-ious looks great on shorties too! I had a break (the first in over a year, very sad) on the index finger nail on my cinderella hand and subsequently took down the length of the rest of the nails on that hand to match it. I'll get around to my left hand eventually, but in the meantime I can show you how a polish looks on long and short nails both. Obviously I have no shame.

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Pretty Serious Ninja-lish-ious

Squishy! If you love your dark blues like I do, Ninja-lish-ious will definitely put a smile on your face. Even if you break a nail. KellyGonzo has a great picture of the kind of sparkly goodness this polish gets up to in direct light in her review, here. Check it out!love,Liz

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Another from Australia! Moscow was released by Australian boutique polish maker Picture Polish as a Collaboration shade in October 2014. It was designed by Sasha Plein, co-founder of the nail-ru online community, and is one of if not the first Russian Collaboration polishes. If you would like to see Sasha's post about her shade and its inspiration, you can find a google translate (Russian to English) version of that here.Moscow is officially described as a "complex deep maroon bijou holo" bearing a mix of delicate small holo particles and sparkling metallic flecks of raspberry pink and violet-blue. I consider maroon to be a somewhat rustic, earthy variation of burgundy, kind of a blend of dark red with brown and purple, and I wouldn't classify this polish as a maroon. For me, the predominant red/purple tones of Moscow put it over amongst the purpled-berry/wine branches of the burgundy family tree. By design, there's an abundance of romance built in to this polish and it feels much more complex than a straight burgundy, with dimensional aspects of Tyrian purple, mulberry, and raspberry rose. As a creme holo, the holographic effects produce beautiful color nuancing to the base. Soft, feminine shades of red-violet, plum and rose bloom from within its depths, punctuated by tiny twinkling sparks of pinkish red from the shimmery flecks and shading to darkest claret at the sidewalls. It's overcast and raining here again today, but from the photos I've seen of this polish online, direct sun elicits a glowing prismatic flare in warm, ember-like hues of flame and blood orange that is edged with sparkling wisps of indigo, violet and blue. Application was delicious. The consistency of Moscow is fluid, light and creamy with a plush glide over the nail and outstanding self-leveling properties. This is a supremely user-friendly polish, amenable to thin or thicker coats and easy to manipulate with Picture Polish's wonderful flattened flexible brush. Pigmentation is also outstanding, with wearably opaque coverage in one coat. A second coat deepens and enriches the color and, in my opinion, augments the holographic effects as well. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with a bit of pigment travel in addition to some stickiness on the part of the flecks. Moscow dries naturally in very good time to a silky smooth, slightly flat finish. Topcoat adds a becoming gloss and accentuates the presence and effect of the shimmers.Photos show two coats of Moscow over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

Picture Polish Moscow

You can see that Moscow has that delicious refined Pointillist sort of speckling to its finish from the holographic pigment and the fleck shimmers, giving the look a graceful dimensionality and depth that pairs well with its sophisticated, cosmopolitan nature. To me, this polish is just poignantly beautiful. If you would like to see how Moscow compares to "similar" Picture Polish offerings, there's a great on-the-nail comparison of Focus, Monroe and Moscow with Zoya India thrown in as well on lakkomlakkom. love,Liz

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Fall'n For You (the official name ends with an exclamation point, which I omit in text to avoid confusion) was released by Australian indie polish maker Glam Polish as part of the limited edition 2015 Halloween Trio at the beginning of this month. The trio comprises three glitter-filled holos, of which I selected one: Fall'n For You, because, well, orange glitters! I love orange glitters generally, but they're always especially awesome around this time of year. 'Tis the season!

Fall'n For You has a silver holographic base with superholo microglitters in silver and an assortment of tiny holographic metallic hex glitters in fall foliage hues of orange, copper, red, rose and gold. The orange glitters are slightly larger than the others -- they are the flag bearers of this polish. The overall effect is like a sandy, glowing, platinum blond sort of base speckled with brilliant sparks of color, especially orange, red and copper. A surreptitious linear prismatic flair from the holographic silver base sneaks in there under direct light and plays beautifully alongside all of the glittery goodness. Unfortunately, it is overcast and raining here today (a little chilly too, yum!) so I didn't have the opportunity to view or photograph this polish in its fullest holographic glory, but even in low light the sparkle and glow is splendiforous. Absolutely delicious autumnal eye candy!Application was wonderful -- exactly as you'd expect from the glitter holo formulary expertise of creator Rachel. The consistency of Fall'n For You is fluid and smooth with none of the folderol you might anticipate from a polish this densely packed with components. It has an easy, self-leveling flow over the nail with a nicely balanced viscosity for painting and no stacking, stickups or protrusions over the free edge on the part of the glitters, which disperse evenly over the nail as you paint. Coverage is largely provided by the components, with completely even opacity in only two coats. I did my cleanup as I went along and had no issues. Fall'n For You dries naturally in very good time to a finish that has a bit of that "glitter grit" texture. I used a coat of Pretty Serious Plump Up the Volume to smooth it out, allowed that to set up and partially dry, then followed up with a layer of Seche Vite for a glossy, glitter-under-glass look.Photos show two coats of Fall'n For You over treatment and basecoat with a layer of surface-smoothing Pretty Serious Plump Up the Volume Gel Effect topcoat followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

Glam Polish Fall'n For You!

What a blast! I adore this! If such creatures as Halloween faeries exist, I am certain that this is what they've got on their nails. Still images can't do proper justice to the experience of this polish, the terrific sparkle, the holo effects and bright fall colors are dynamic and completely coherent on the nail in person.

Glory be to God for dappled things, indeed -- especially when they look like this!love,Liz